Back to Brief on Iran
With the opening of the Group of Eight summit in Birmingham approaching, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, called on the leaders of the industrialized nations to impose trade and political sanctions on the religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran.
In separate letters to the eight leaders, Mr. Rajavi wrote: A year after Khatami's election as the regime's president and the emergence of a split triumvirate, the mullahs' regime is beset by a raging power struggle that has weakened and totally destabilized the entire regime. At the same time, in recent months, 216 antigovernment acts of protest, strikes and demonstrations have been registered in Iran, especially in factories and universities.
Mr. Rajavi wrote: The industrialized nations' foreign and finance ministers' meeting in London welcomed the "commitment" of the Iranian regime to expand "civil society based on the rule of law and greater freedom of expression" and "its efforts to play a positive political role." These observations have absolutely no basis in reality. One year after Khatami's election, facts on the ground demonstrate that as simply another official of this medieval regime, Khatami has neither the power nor the interest to take a single step toward reform.
The NCR President stated: The chants of "death to Khamenei and death to Khatami" echo across the nation, reminding one of the last months of the shah’s regime. No amount of flexibility toward, and concessions to, the ruling theocracy can save the mullahs from their inevitable overthrow at the hands of the Iranian people and Resistance. On the contrary, such policies adversely affect future relations between the Iranian people and countries which pursue this approach. A principled policy on Iran is to stand firm vis-a-vis the ruling religious, terrorist dictatorship. At the same time, the necessary condition for the effectiveness of this policy is to recognize the right of the Iranian people to resist against the clerics and to restore democracy, peace and social justice. The Resistance movement and its President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the symbol of unity among Iranians, enjoy the support of the majority of the Iranian people.
Khamenei Slams "Pro-West Intellectuals", Reuter, May 12
TEHRAN - Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Tuesday blasted Western-style intellectuals, Iranian television said.
"Intellectualism was born sick in our country...A tendency towards the West, opposition to religion and rejection of national traditions, these are among the characteristics of intellectualism before the (1979) Islamic revolution in Iran," it quoted Khamenei as telling students at Tehran University.
Khamenei, on an unannounced visit to the campus, warned about an "intellectual reaction" which he said wanted to revive Western-oriented intellectualism, the television said.
Student members of the voluntary Basij militia earlier cancelled a rally planned for Tuesday at the university to back the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards who has been criticized by rival faction for alleged remarks to "cut the necks and tongues" of opponents, residents said.
[According to a report by Agence France Presse from Tehran: Asked about Islamic vigilante groups' violence against critics, Khamenei said, "This is the job of the government not the people. If necessary, the government will do it, but sometimes a frown is more effective than a punch."]
Hardliners Disrupt Surgeons' Seminar in Tehran, Agence France Presse, May 12
TEHRAN - Around 40 Islamic hardliners stormed into a conference of Iranian surgeons in Tehran to demand an apology for critical comments made by a surgeon against the commander of Revolutionary Guards, newspapers reported on Tuesday. The hardliners, dressed in identical clothing, closed the doors of the conference in Tehran on Monday and prevented people from entering or leaving, Hamshahri daily said.
Their spokesman took over the microphone and demanded an apology from a surgeon who had criticized the Guards' commander General Yahya Rahim Safavi two days earlier for allegedly threatening to suppress internal dissent.
The veteran surgeon, identified as Dr. Movahedi, had also protested against a recent ruling by parliament to segregate medical care by sex.
According to the paper, one of the surgeons present at the conference who protested against the raid was beaten up and taken away. The paper said there was "no information on his fate."
Organizers later decided to close the meeting but were prevented by the assailants, who insisted on an apology, it said.
Several video cameras and other pieces of equipment were broken in the ensuing stand-off, and the attackers seized the taped cassette of the event before they left the hall.